Electrical connector assemblies of plug and receptacle connectors are known with a variety of latching mechanisms some of which require appropriate tools to delatch and others which require at least manipulation to delatch, for unmating of the connector assembly as desired. There are also connector assemblies of plug and receptacle connectors wherein inserts are secured in shells and are held in mated engagement by a threaded coupling ring securing the shells together.
Certain connector applications would make it desirable for the mated connectors to be unmatable solely by pulling the connectors apart with a certain level of tensile force, without tools and without manipulation such as rotating a coupling ring, unscrewing a fastener, lifting or depressing a latch arm or withdrawing a lock insert. Such applications would include both prevention of apparatus damage due to inadvertent stress on the connector assembly mounted thereto, and allowance of separation of mated connectors in an emergency. An example of the former would be a portable keyboard of a computer terminal movable with respect to the terminal, where the connector cord of limited length between keyboard and terminal is accidentally pulled. An example of the latter would be in an aircraft where the pilot's helmet has an electrical connection to the aircraft, and an emergency necessitates sudden ejection of the pilot and there is no time nor opportunity available for the pilot to attend to disconnecting the connectors. Pilot helmets are presently being designed with features requiring a plurality of electrical connections for a variety of reasons, such as stereo transmission of a pilot's voice via microphone and stereo sound transmission to him or her earphones. Another new requirement is audio pickup of continuous low frequency noise at the helmet for feedback to a white noise generator. Such multiple electrical connections cannot be handled by conventional phone plugs having only two or three contact members, even though such plugs are unmatable from their receptacles by a certain amount of axial tensile force.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,647,130, discloses a drawer connector requiring blind mating which is a high durability connector. The mating contact array provides for high contact normal force between the matable pairs only by relative lateral movement of the connectors, and provides for minimal frictional engagement between the matable pairs. At least one of the mating connectors is float mounted to its panel, and lateral movement is obtained when the connectors are aligned and almost fully together, by corresponding camming surfaces on the mating housings engaging to urge the float mounted housing in a selected axially normal direction, which movement causes the contact sections of one connector to deflect the contact arms of the other connector against spring bias, thereby achieving substantial normal force therebetween for assured electrically mating engagement.
It is desirable to provide a connector assembly which is delatchable solely by application of a certain level of axial tensile force thereto.
It is further desirable to provide such a delatchable connector assembly with mating contact arrays which have minimal frictional engagement through many mating cycles for long in-service utility.
It is still further desirable to provide a connector assembly with contact-containing inserts in shells which connectors are matable and latchable solely under axially applied force when mating must necessarily occur prior to latching, and where a mating but unlatched condition is preempted.
It is yet further desirable to provide such a connector assembly as described above which has conductive shells designed to substantially eliminate electromagnetic interference.